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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Yungang Grottoes,UNESCO Heritage Site in China

Ever since I registeredmyself for the the epic challenge of goUNESCO, ticking off the world
heritage site has become my new craze. Its not that I have seen many World
Heritage sites(WHI). But it is so much fun to add new sites to the list.

During my recent
visit to Beijing, I decided to visit Yungang grottoes,
one of the world heritage sites in North China. It is 400 kms away from Beijing
and is located in Datong, Shanxi province of China. If you have already read my last post about
Datong this will be in continuation to that. The Grottoes were reminiscent of Ajanta
& Ellora caves in India. It looked more like Ajanta’s sibling. Yungang Grottoes are caves famous for its early Buddhist sculptures.

Yungang Grottoes. Picture taken from the West side

I hired a taxi to
visit Yungang Grottoes. The road is good and it hardly takes 20 minutes to reach to the
gate of this heritage site. After entering in, I headed towards the help desk
to hire an English speaking guide. I never even thought I may not get one and
will be left alone to explore. After exchanging some sign language and few
words with the help desk lady I was made to understand that such service is not available.

Overview of Grottoes

Now, there I was finding my way to the Grottoes. I had not
googled much before going there. I just knew that there is an attractive Buddha
statue.

As I entered through a courtyard there was a huge wooden door
which opened up into a corridor of stone pillars. They were very interesting in
design. Each pillar had a base with women upholding the elephants and the
elephants in turn holding the entire pillar on their back.After crossing two bridges and few monasteriesI reached thegrottoes. There are no direction boards. So there are possibilities of
you ending up in some other direction and again walk back to the Grottoes.

Elephant pillers

These Buddhist caves were built on thecliff of Wuzou mountain which is on the bank of
Wuzou river during Wei dynasty during 5th century. There are 53
caves in Yungang Grottoes and in total 5400 statues. It is one of the protected
relics of China. They are the first stone carved caves of China. Yungangcaves are said to be the combination of
Chinese and Gandhara art. They say that there were 5 Indian monks who were part
of the team of sculptors in the early period of cave construction. It spans
from east to west for about 1 km.

We need to cross the bridge to reach Grottoes

All statues are carved in sandstone towards the cliff. While
upper body of the most of the statues are in good condition, lower body of most
of the statues are in bad condition. When
Wei rulers moved their capitalfrom Datong to Laulong, these caves were left
unattended. Apparently all the caves had roof and housed in wooden structure.
Wooden structures were destroyed during war and
weathering effect has taken out roofing for some of the caves.

Typical cave of Yungang Grattoes

Cave 16 to 20 are identified as the early caves. They also
call it as asTan Yao caves named after
the chief artist. Five Buddhastatues in
these caves are said to be symbolizing 5
emperors of Northern Wei dynasty. Buddha of cave 20 is an iconic statue of not only Yungang
Grottoes but even Datong’s. Outside of the caves exists 1000 Buddha sculptures.
It is the only cavewhich is completely
open to air. Buddha of cave 20 is one my
personal favorites.

The Cave 20 was under some restoration work and I couldn’t get scaffolding free picture. The
5 Buddha statues are said to be influenced by Indian Gandhara art. Buddhas
eyes arecarved in detail with eye pupil
embedded in black stone. This has made the face look more livelier. Long ears
almosttouching the shouldersare thedominant feature of the statue. This
is said to be the master piece of early Buddhist sculptural art of China. This
Buddha has dignified facial expression. Doesn’t he ?

Cave 20 My favourite Buddha

Other Buddha statues of Cave 19 to 16 are Maitreya Buddha, Bodhisatva and Trikala
Buddha. All have arched roof and an opening on the second floor where Buddhas
face is visible and it looks like he is peeping through the window.

Smiling Buddha peeping from the window - Early caves

Cave 1,2,5,6 ,7,8,9,10 and 11 to 13 are considered to be
middle period caves built between 471-494 A.D. They have less influence of
Indian art and represents more of Chinese art.

Cave 5 and 6 housed in wooden structures

Cave5 and 6 were
different from other caves with colorful paintings and statues. These caves
still have wooden housing. They have two chambers. Buddha statue in cave 5 with
sitting posture is known as great Buddha.
It is 17 ft tall. This is the tallest
Buddha of Yungang Grottoes. As the cave is not so wide we can’t take pictures
of entire Buddha statue. Photography was not allowed in these two caves and I didn’tobserve the sign board. I had taken few pictures by the time I was
warned.

Paintings on the wall of cave 6

Cave 5 - Built during middle period . It reflects more of Chinese art. Look at the face and clothes of the statue

Caves to the west of cave 20, and other small caves towards east are
built after 494 AD. These are more of niches and they are very small caves. Statues
in these caves are more of Chinese in nature, characterized by long thin neck
and narrow shoulders. Cave 37 is a pagoda cave and has pagoda at the center and multiple Buddhas
are carved in rows on the surrounding walls.

Long neck and narrow shoulders of third phase caves

Pagoda cave 39

There is museum after these caves which houses many statues
from caves and excavated items of 5th century.I couldn’t go to the small grottoes towards theEast side. It started snowing . I had wasted
enough time in watching other stuff than Grottoes. So had to return.

You need
one full day to appreciate the beauty of the grottoes and to soak in the
calmness of Buddha all around. It was worth traveling all the way from
Beijing.

Travel tips

Most of the travel sites I
checked suggested for one day. When you travel next, plan for at least 2 days in Datong. You need a day to explore Yungang Grottoes

Entry fee to Grottoes is steep price of 120 Yuan/person. Yes
it pinches. But worth it

Plan to hire an English speaking guide from Datong itself.
Like me , you may not find anyone in Yungyang Grottoes

If you want to explore it by yourself, you can make a note
from official website Yungang
and take a print with you. You can appreciate the caves better

There are no sign boards or direction boards once enter the
protected area. Carry a map with you

There is a lot of walking as Grottoes are spread along a km.
You will end up walking about 3kms. Walking shoes are adviced